Nearly half of young Sri Lankans would leave the country if given the opportunity, according to a nationwide survey released on Wednesday — a finding that sits alongside, rather than against, a strong majority reporting attachment to the country.
The “My Sri Lanka | Next” study was conducted by Global Unites South Asia in partnership with the Centenary Movement, surveying 2,418 respondents across all 25 districts, supported by 22 provincial consultations, EconomyNext reported. It targeted Gen Z and younger Millennials.
Belonging and departure are not opposites
- 80% identify primarily as Sri Lankan
- 73.7% report a strong sense of national belonging
- 49.1% would leave the country if given the opportunity
- 52.7% of Gen Z respondents alone would leave
The most pointed number is the overlap: among those who said they felt a strong national belonging, 42.4% still said they would go. The desire to leave is therefore not concentrated among the disaffected. It coexists with attachment.
What the survey attributes it to
The study points to worsening living conditions, job scarcity and economic uncertainty as the main drivers.
69.8% of respondents said they are financially stressed or struggling, and 16.6% said they struggle to afford basic essentials.
That stress is distributed unevenly by region. It peaked at 84.3% in the Northern Province and 78.3% in the Eastern Province, against 63.5% in the Western Province — a gap of roughly 21 percentage points between the most and least affected provinces.
Exposure to discrimination also tracks closely with intent to leave. Among respondents who reported experiencing discrimination, 55.8% were willing to emigrate, against 37.0% of those who did not — a difference of nearly 19 points.
A warning framed in cycles
Speaking at the launch, Prashan De Visser, Founder and President of Global Unites, placed the findings against Sri Lanka’s record of periodic unrest.
“As we look at Sri Lanka, our initial studies showed that almost every 15 to 18 years, we’ve experienced cycles of violence. And we are sitting at an 18-year mark,” he said.
Addressing the civic leaders present, he added: “Sri Lanka deserves better. Our children deserve better. We have the power to be part of that change, and that is what today is all about.”
What the number does not measure
The survey’s authors were explicit that intent to leave is not a count of departures. Stated willingness to emigrate, given a hypothetical opportunity, is a measure of sentiment — it does not establish how many respondents have the means, visa eligibility or concrete plans to act on it. The authors presented the figure as evidence of an urgent need to make a viable future possible within the country.
A note on similar headlines: surveys reporting that Sri Lankans wish to emigrate recur, and they are not interchangeable. A widely cited earlier finding that “one in four Sri Lankans would like to migrate” comes from the Institute for Health Policy’s Sri Lanka Opinion Tracker Survey, reported in November 2021, and covers the adult population rather than this study’s Gen Z and younger Millennial sample. The two figures are not comparable, and the older one is not a prior-year reading of this survey.
